The first set of APIs that AT&T plans to release will focus on Web search, question-and-answer, SMS, and dictation, among other areas, the company said. In addition, it will offer up a software development kit (SDK) for those developers who want to "capture a user's spoken words and send them into the network for transcription." AT&T says that the SDK should make it easy to integrate Watson into existing apps.

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Although Apple's Siri speech recognition platform gets much of the attention in the mobile space,AT&T has been competing there for years. The platform has been refined by AT&T Labs, and according to the company, has helped it secure more than 600 patents related to speech recognition. Watson is currently available in YPMobile, among several other AT&T applications.

Looking ahead, AT&T says that it will continue to make Watson APIs available that focus on other disciplines, including gaming and social media.